Call for Submissions: Indie Ebook Marketing

Every Monday on Facebook and Twitter I post a few selected calls for submissions, usually from literary magazines or contests. But today I'm announcing my very own call for submissions. Que emoción!

The gist: I'm inviting authors who have self-published at least one ebook to submit a proposal for a 500- to 600-word blog post about their ebook marketing experience. I will choose up to 10 submissions to pursue, and the contributors will be paid upon delivery of a satisfactory post.

Please read all of the information carefully before submitting. Submissions that don't meet the criteria and/or follow the guidelines will be automatically disqualified. Yes, for realsies.

Project description

Over the next 6-12 months I'll be publishing a series of blog posts here on Sione Aeschliman, LLC that are geared toward writers who are considering self-publishing an ebook for the first time. (Examples of posts in this series: "7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 1"; "Part 2"; and "5 Reasons NOT to Self-Publish.") This content will remain free on my site indefinitely, but I also intend to compile it into an inexpensive ebook for those who want easily navigable, offline access to the information. While I'll be writing most of the content for this project, I do want to invite other contributors to talk about their experiences, especially in regards to areas into which I have not yet delved extensively, such as ebook marketing. This is where you come in.

Who can submit?

I want you to submit if:

• You have self-published at least one full-length (min. 30,000 words) ebook that you're charging money for; AND
• Your self-published book has been available for purchase for at least one year OR you've made more than $1,000 off your book within the first year; AND
• You have expended resources (time, perhaps also some money) on marketing that book. [Note: your marketing efforts don't have to have been successful; we want to learn from mistakes as well as successes.]

If you are an individual or company who sells marketing or other services to authors, you are welcome to email me, and I may invite you to write a guest post and/or include you in the index of author services, but you are ineligible to receive payment for the blog post unless you are also an author and your post is about your personal experience marketing your own ebook(s).

Submission guidelines

Imagine you are writing to a friend who's thinking about self-publishing an ebook and hasn't the first clue where to start with marketing. You want to support this friend by being truthful about your own experience so they can make an informed decision about whether to go ahead with it, and if they *do* go ahead with it, what marketing strategies to employ and/or avoid. You can get creative (e.g. tell your experience as a story, in a poem, as a recipe, etc.) or get formulaic (e.g. tell it as a series of straightforward tips), just so long as you stick to the word count and talk about the results you got as well as the marketing strategies you used.

Submissions should be based on your own personal experience (not research, not hearsay); be accurate, clear, thoughtful, and actionable; be written in accessible language (leave the thesaurus aside); and be audience-appropriate. I'm looking for contributors who can hook an audience with their unique voices and keep to a word count. Humor is appreciated, as is sincerity. [Note: I am *not* looking for anything with abusive or discriminatory language, even if it's intended in jest.]

Our audience is interested in a diversity of experiences - success stories, miserable failures, everything in between - from a diversity of people who've published full-length works a minimum of 30,000 words - collections of short stories, poems, or short creative nonfiction pieces; novellas or novels; co-authored works, solo-authored works, or indie anthologies - in a diversity of genres - literary fiction, popular fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.

All submissions must be written in English and be the submitter's own original content.

A maximum of 10 guest contributors on the topic of ebook marketing will be chosen for inclusion in the series.

Compensation

All selected guest contributors who deliver the agreed-upon content on time will receive three forms of compensation:

1. Monetary - $30 for previously unpublished content and $10 for a reprint. Payment upon delivery of a satisfactory post. All payments will be made in U.S. dollars.
2. Exposure - In addition to your author bio and links to your website and social media accounts, you will have the opportunity to include information in your post about one of your ebooks: cover image, description, and buy links. [Note: Cover image and description must be appropriate for an all-ages audience.]
3. Contributor's Copy - You will receive a free contributor's copy when I publish the ebook mentioned in the "Project description" section above.

I will also do my best to promote your guest post on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and I hope you will do the same on your social networks.

Rights

Normally guest blog posts are traded or given away for free, so why am I paying for these? Because I want the option to include all or part of your post in an ebook geared toward first-time self-publishing authors.

For previously unpublished content, I'm asking for worldwide electronic first rights, exclusive rights for 30 days after scheduled publication on this site, archival rights, and anthology rights. Translation: You agree to let me publish your content before anyone else does (including you); you agree not to publish it anywhere else (including on your own site/blog) for 30 days after its scheduled publication date on Sione Aeschliman, LLC (after 30 days the rights revert to you and you can republish it anywhere); you agree to let me continue to make your content available on Sione Aeschliman, LLC indefinitely; and you agree to let me include all or part of your content (as I see fit) in my ebook geared toward first-time self-publishing authors (here called an anthology), with your contribution appropriately attributed.

For reprints, I'm asking for worldwide electronic reprint rights, archival rights, and anthology rights. Translation: You agree to let me reprint your content on Sione Aeschliman, LLC; you agree to let me continue to make your content available on Sione Aeschliman, LLC indefinitely; and you agree to let me include all or part of your content (as I see fit) in my ebook geared toward first-time self-publishing authors (here called an anthology), with your contribution appropriately attributed.

Deadline: 30 August 2015

Invitations will be sent to the selected contributors by 15 September 2015. Due dates for the final versions of guest posts will fall in October and November 2015.

How to submit

Previously unpublished submissions
If you'd like to submit previously unpublished content (it's never before been published anywhere online or in print), you have two options:

1) Fill out and submit this proposal form. I know how much work it is being an indie author, and the purpose of the query form is to save you the time and energy of writing the post without any guarantee that it will be accepted.

2) Write the post and submit via email. If you would like to go ahead and write the post, you can email it to me at sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com along with an author bio of 100 words or less. The subject line should read: "EBM Submission - Unpublished - [YourName]"

Reprints
Reprints are accepted as long as you have the rights. Which means if you've already published 500-600 words on this topic - on your blog, somewhere else on the Internet, or maybe in a book you've published - you can still submit it to this call, provided that the rights to publish have reverted to you. Reprint submissions should be emailed to me at sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com along with a link to the original post (if available) and an author bio of 100 words or less. The subject line should read: "EBM Submission - Reprint - [YourName]"

Questions?

Please email questions to sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com.